Security firm Fortinet has spent much of its history building network security hardware and software to help protect enterprises and service providers. Today Fortinet announced its newest offering - the FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Service (TIS).

Neil Matz, Senior Product Marketing Manager, FortiGuard Threat Intelligence Service, told eSecurityPlanet that TIS is an entirely net new functionality and isn't something that came from Fortinet's fabric partners. He added that the data for TIS originates from the Fortinet sensor network, which includes standalone sensors and FortiGate firewall and WiFi devices.

"This is entirely based on Fortinet's mature, broad sensor network of more than 3 million globally deployed devices; we are not using other partnerships to provide the data," Matz said.

The purpose of TIS isn't necessarily about alerting organizations to a specific threat that is unique to their own location but rather is about providing a broader view of security.

"Currently, TIS provides insights into the broader threat landscape," Matz said. "Displaying organizational information (e.g., for their own devices) is planned for when the service is generally available (out of beta)."

In terms of the data that TIS provides, Matz said that it includes contextual information relative to various segments (industry verticals, org sizes, locations), overall macro trend information, statistical information about specific threats (where it ranks, whether it is a rising threat, how ubiquitous the signature is, etc.), and near real-time malicious campaign commentary from FortiGuard Labs.

The initial TIS Beta does not include direct integration with Fortinet's firewall and FortiGate security appliances.

"Currently, there is no direct integration, but there are plans to leverage the same APIs into Fortinet Security Fabric products (FortiSIEM for example), and then make the same feeds available to Fabric ecosystem partners in the future," he said.

Fortinet first announced its secure fabric architecture in April 2016, as an approach to make it easier to configure security tools and policy across a network. Earlier this year, in April 2017, Fortinet entered the Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) market with its FortiCASB product.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eSecurityPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

Loading Comments...

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which QuinStreet receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. QuinStreet does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.